After spending almost a year living a relatively quiet life as an intermittent houseguest of the Greene’s, Monroe attended a circus fund-raiser in March 1955. She decided the event, for which comedian Milton Berle served as ringmaster, was the perfect venue for announcing her new film company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, to the press. Greene’s son Joshua says it was her idea to hop atop the pink-painted elephant with a rhinestone-studded saddle and harness.

Setting up a fashion shoot for the next day, Greene used Monroe, wearing clothes from a previous day’s shoot, as a stand-in to position his lights. With Monroe’s 20th Century Fox lawsuit about to be settled, the two were in a good mood, says Greene’s son Joshua.

After spending almost a year living a relatively quiet life as an intermittent houseguest of the Greene’s, Monroe attended a circus fund-raiser in March 1955. She decided the event, for which comedian Milton Berle served as ringmaster, was the perfect venue for announcing her new film company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, to the press. Greene’s son Joshua says it was her idea to hop atop the pink-painted elephant with a rhinestone-studded saddle and harness.

Taken during a party at the rented Los Angeles house the Greenes lived in with Monroe while she was shooting Bus Stop in March 1956. Later, Monroe would be photographed spilling out of the same black spaghetti-strap dress during a press event for the film The Prince and the Showgirl after the strap broke.

Greene invited Marlene Dietrich, whom he’d befriended after photographing her in 1952, to a January 1955 party celebrating the launch of the new film production company he and Monroe were forming. The two Hollywood stars had never met before.

Named one of the top three photos of the twentieth century by Time magazine in 1999, this picture was taken in Greene’s New York studio in October 1954. Monroe is holding up the bodice of the too-small tulle-and-satin Herbert Kasper dress because Greene’s wife, Amy, didn’t know Monroe’s dress size. Greene’s son Joshua says it’s one of this father’s most-requested Monroe photos.

With full access to the 20th Century Fox costume department while she was filming Bus Stop in 1956,Monroe donned a palm -reader outfit, and Greene shot her on a Sunday "for fun" says his son Joshua. "They loved doing pictures together, so every now and then on a day off, they would rummage through the costume department, come up with an outfit, and do a series of pictures."

Setting up a fashion shoot for the next day, Greene used Monroe, wearing clothes from a previous day’s shoot, as a stand-in to position his lights. With Monroe’s 20th Century Fox lawsuit about to be settled, the two were in a good mood, says Greene’s son Joshua.

Many people have fond memories of Marilyn Monroe; few of them can say she was their babysitter who gave them bubble baths as a toddler. Joshua Greene, a son of famed fashion and celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene, can make that rare claim; he was a baby when his father and mother, Amy, a former Saks Fifth Avenue model,opened up their Connecticut home to the actress when she was at the height of her career, having recently starred in both Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire.

Milton Greene and Monroe first hit it off during a 1953 Los Angeles photo shoot for Look magazine. Soon he was encouraging the star, unhappy with her dumb-blonde image and an onerous 20th Century Fox studio contract, to move East while he helped extricate her from the deal that didn’t reflect her new status as one of the studio’s biggest stars. She spent two years living with the Greenes intermittently in a guest suite adjacent to their converted old farmhouse, from 1954 until the summer of 1956. After her contract was successfully renegotiated, Greene and Monroe formed Marilyn Monroe Productions, and produced the films Bus Stop and The Prince and the Showgirl, all while she remained an honorary member of the family.

"If you were famous, you had safe harbor in the Greene family," says Joshua, now 63, and a photographer and photographic printmaker. He says Monroe came and went as she pleased using one of two black Ford Thunderbirds she and Greene had swapped for the Cadillac comedian Jack Benny gave her after an appearance on his TV show in 1953. "The house gave her a certain sense of comfort and privacy," Joshua says.

When Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956 her relationship with Greene soured, and he eventually sold Monroe his share of their company. In the summer of 1962, just before his Greene left for a work trip to Paris, Joshua says his mother dreamt Monroe was in distress and encouraged his father to call her. "They spoke for, like, an hour and a half on the phone," he remembers, with Greene promising to come see her in L.A. when he returned from Europe. Monroe overdosed while he was still in Paris.

Monroe posed for Greene during 50 photo sessions over the course of their friendship. Some of the resulting images have become iconic: in 1999, Time magazine named his 1954 "Ballerina" portrait one of the top three photos of the twentieth century. Other photographs were never published—until now. The Essential Marilyn Monroe, coming October 1, features 284 photographs, 176 of which have never been seen. The book includes photos of Monroe, Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis Jr., Marlene Dietrich, Milton Berle, Edward R. Murrow, as well as at her 1956 wedding to Arthur Miller.

"This is a tribute to the old man," says Joshua, who spent five years putting the book together in tribute to his father, who died in 1985. His aim was to use modern technology to restore his father’s photos in a way that honored his style. Five hundred limited-edition, hand-numbered copies, on high-quality paper, in a larger, 14-inch format, will also be available for $2,000.

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